If Tourism B.C. is looking for a spokesperson, actor Keean Johnson is just the young man for the job.

“It was just stunning there and probably the nicest people — just so sweet,” said the 18-year-old Denver native, who was based in Duncan on Vancouver Island for four months last year shooting the TV series Spooksville.

While Duncan was home base, the production travelled with shooting days in places like Cowichan Bay, Victoria and Chemainus.

“I have to say whenever we would think we had gone to the most beautiful spot on the island to film, somehow we would find another one to top that,” said Johnson, who plays Adam, a new kid in a creepy town. “So it was really cool going out to all the locations. It really felt like we were filming a film. It was so cool, a great experience.”

And if the work days were that great, you can imagine what Johnson thought of the days off.

“That was the best,” said Johnson about surfing trips to Tofino. “So great, and the waves were awesome. I loved it. It has this real cool hippy surf community feel, and there was this little food truck called Tacofino. Oh my gosh, oh my gosh.”

Spooksville is another in the long list of scary programming that has hit the airwaves of late. But while there is an element of the supernatural (the small town is haunted), Johnson says Spooksville is more thriller than chiller.

“Horror is the worst thing for me, but I love thrillers. Any type of thrillers,” Johnson said. “That’s the thing for us, we didn’t want to make it some gory kind of horror, because then kids wouldn’t be able to watch it. So we kind of went on this aspect of a thriller — always being on the edge of your seat and never knowing what is happening. I think they did a really good job of capturing that.”

In the series, Johnson’s Adam teams up with Sally (Katie Douglas) and Watch (Nick Purcha) to solve mysteries involving everything from vampires to Bigfoot to a man-eating plant.

“Adam can’t decide if he loves living there or hates living there,” Johnson said of his character. “He is experiencing Spooksville just like the audience is, because Sally and Watch have been living there since they were young and Adam just moved there.”

For Johnson, who made his acting debut at age 10 in the Denver Center for Performing Arts’ Plainsong, this series marks his first time working in film or TV.

“My very first day on the set I didn’t even know what a mark was, or how the camera worked or what blocking was. I had no idea of any of the terms,” said Johnson, who added the situation was made a bit easier when he discovered his co-stars had minimal TV experience themselves. “Everyone was so sweet and they knew this was my first time doing this, so they helped me out and helped me along the way.

“I was so nervous to see how it was going to turn out, especially with all the special effects that are needed. I was really wondering how it was going to look, but I was so pleased,” said Johnson, who went on to praise the effects and makeup departments. “The whole vibe was that we felt we were making this cool show. Everyone was excited to come to work every day.”

With the first 22 episodes of Spooksville under his belt, Johnson is back in L.A. working. He has shot an episode of Nashville and has hot-footed it back to his first love, dance. He is currently working on a dance show called Runaways for the Collide Dance Company.

“It’s a group of boys who are incredibly unique movers, and I am so happy to be part of the company and get to dance with them,” said Johnson, who began dancing when he was five and at age 11 was playing Michael Caffrey on Broadway in the multiple-award winning Billy Elliot musical.